Twenty-year-old Mike Trout is learning baseball history as fast as he is making it this year — sometimes he even runs into it in the hallway.

Trout met Hall of Famer Al Kaline before Monday’s game at Comerica Park. The two names have been linked a lot lately. When Trout singled in the All-Star Game last week, he became the youngest player since Kaline in 1955 to get a hit in the All-Star Game. That’s the same year Kaline (who jumped to the Detroit Tigers straight out of high school) became the youngest batting champion in baseball history. Kaline led the AL with a .340 average at age 20, finishing the season still two months short of his 21st birthday. Three weeks shy of his 21st birthday, Trout currently leads the AL with a .355 average.

Only two players in baseball history have won a batting title in the same year during which they turned 21 — Kaline and Ty Cobb.

“I saw him in the hallway (outside the manager’s office in the visiting clubhouse at Comerica Park) and Sosh came up and said, ‘I want you to meet someone,’ ” Trout said of being introduced to Kaline, a special assistant in the Tigers’ front office now and an iconic figure in the state of Michigan. “I knew of him. My mom lived in Michigan and was a big fan of his growing up. It was pretty neat to meet him.”

Trout said Kaline congratulated him on his success this season and “said keep working hard, he said he likes the way I play.”

Kaline said more than that to John Lowe of the Detroit Free Press. In an article earlier this week, Lowe quoted Kaline comparing Trout to one of his contemporaries and fellow Hall of Famers — Mickey Mantle.

“I saw that,” Trout said. “Good stuff.”

Trout readily admits that he doesn’t know a great deal about the history of baseball — even as he keeps hearing his name linked to some past greats.

“I’ve never really read a lot about baseball history,” he said. “I’m going to have to start studying up.”

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